After the Washington Capitals held their morning skate, they made Tom Wilson available to the media and he had some interesting comments ahead of tonight’s Opening Night matchup with the New York Rangers. The Metropolitan Division foes will renew their rivalry and the game has been hyped up over the summer as a potential war on the ice.
We all know what the Rangers did over the offseason in the aftermath of a May 5th regular season contest but Wilson, like many of us, still isn’t sure what their real goal or motive is. Although this game is hyped up by the fans and the media, Wilson is treating this like any other contest and has other goals in mind than go toe to toe with Ryan Reaves.
Wilson said his focus is on what his team is doing and not what the Rangers are doing:
"“All I can really focus on is our room, our team, our organization and I’m having a big physical first night with the Rangers isn’t where we want to be this year. You know we have a lot of goals. I want to score goals I want to be a leader, I wanna take on more responsibility and get our team to the playoffs and hopefully more.”"
If the Caps really want to get inside the Rangers heads, here’s what Wilson should do. Rather than fight, just skate away. Sometimes the best attention is no attention. But if Wilson wants to fight, have at it. The Caps have other fighters like Garnet Hathaway so don’t be surprised to see him dropping the gloves with somebody.
Our contributor David Atlas wrote in our Tom Wilson player preview that it’s very important for Wilson to limit the penalty minutes. It sounded like from his interview today that he has a similar goal if it isn’t that. If he’s focused on scoring goals, being in the penalty box wouldn’t help him in that.
"The excitement will definitely be there ... opening night always has a buzz to it. Those are the games you want to be a part of."
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 13, 2021
Full media availability with Tom Wilson.#CapsRangers | @MedStarHealth pic.twitter.com/nKZ0vxkqss
Another dream scenario for this game, Tom Wilson scoring the game winning goal. That would be poetic justice.
Wilson said he’s just going to play his game tonight, but did say that emotions will be sky high:
"“My job is to play my game. You know, that’s great we got a lot of good players in this room that can make things happen out there and capitalize on that. Emotions are going to be high I’m sure and you got to stay disciplined like any other night.”"